The Boston Bruins welcomed two of the NHL’s top teams to TD Garden this past week and were on opposite ends of shutouts against the St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens. The Bruins netted a pair of goals in a 2-0 victory over the Blues last Tuesday, but were shut out by the same score when goaltender Carey Price and the Canadeins came to Boston on Saturday afternoon. The team was also on the road Friday night, when they defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets in a hard-fought affair, 4-3. 

Boston holds a 13-9-0 record with 26 points, third in the Northeast Division and seven points behind the division-leading Canadiens, who moved to a 16-5-1 record with Saturday’s victory and have earned 33 points on the season.

Price stopped all 33 shots he faced on Saturday afternoon, snapping a six-game Bruins winning streak. Canadiens defenseman Andrei Markov netted a power play goal 11 minutes, 37 seconds into the first period, slotting a shot past Bruins’ goaltender Tuukka Rask for his second goal of the season. Markov was alone at the top of the faceoff circle  after a pass from Canadeins forward Tomas Plekanec, giving him ample room to fire the puck past Rask for a 1-0 lead. 

Boston had a chance to tie the game with less than two minutes left in the first period when left-winger Simon Gagne sent a backhand through the goalmouth in the direction of right-winger Milan Lucic, but Lucic was unable to direct the puck over Price’s pads and into the net.

It took the Canadiens less than nine minutes into the second period to double their lead when Plekanec finished a three-on-two breakaway for Montreal. After Rask saved the initial shot produced by the Canadiens’ rush, Plekanec cleaned up the rebound and put it past Rask for the 2-0 lead. Plekanec was denied a second goal late in the third period but Montreal walked away with the 2-0 victory.

On Friday night, Boston climbed out of a 2-0 hole to defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets, pushing their winning-streak to six games and setting up the divisional game with Montreal. 

Center Dennis Seidenberg, right wing Matt Fraser and center Daniel Paille all scored in a three-goal second period for the Bruins, but the two teams were tied at the end of regulation. 

In the seventh round of the shootout, newly recalled center Alexander Khokhlachev won the game for the Bruins. 

The Bruins welcomed the league’s top goalie to town last Tuesday night when goaltender Brian Elliott and the Blues came to Boston. The Bruins needed just six minutes to get on the board, capitalizing on a mistake by Elliott. 

At 5:45 of the first period, center Patrice Bergeron intercepted a clearing attempt by Elliott—who had tried to send the puck from next to his net through the middle of his defensive zone—and fired the puck into the open net. 

Defenseman Torey Krug netted his third goal of the season at 11:31 into the second period, blasting a snapshot past Elliott for a 2-0 lead, while the Bruins relied on Rask’s 33 saves for the victory. 

“We started off good, but then obviously their [defensemen] are going to join the rush,” Rask said. “We gave them too much room in the middle of the ice to make those cross-ice passes, and they came in and found the late guy too many times. Something we have to fix I think, but ... two-goal leads are the worst ones in hockey, and I feel like I have to stand up, and today myself and the defense did a good job in front of the net.”

Boston welcomes the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night at 7 p.m.